{"id":235310,"date":"2025-09-19T07:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T11:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=235310"},"modified":"2025-09-17T11:04:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:04:24","slug":"new-plant-and-soil-health-center-named-in-honor-of-alum-george-leigh-minor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/09\/new-plant-and-soil-health-center-named-in-honor-of-alum-george-leigh-minor\/","title":{"rendered":"New Plant and Soil Health Center Named in Honor of Alum George Leigh Minor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to the generous donation of a lifelong farmer and alumnus, the College of Agriculture Health and Natural Resources<\/a> (CAHNR) will have a newly renovated hub for public facing activities and research related to plant and soil health.<\/p>\n

Slated to open in the Roy E. Jones Building in spring 2026, the George Leigh Minor Plant and Soil Health Center<\/a> will support and expand the College’s existing efforts to process soil samples and generate diagnostic reports for community members, and support research and learning.<\/p>\n

\"George
George Leigh Minor \u201956 (CAHNR) passed away at the age of 90 in January 2025, leaving a generous donation, which will be used to fund the renovations necessary to open the George Leigh Minor Plant and Soil Health Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The renovated space will serve as a centralized location for demonstration gardens and displays, public education about plant pests and pathogens, diagnostic services, and research labs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful to Mr. Minor for his belief in UConn\u2019s mission and the impact our programs have on the public,\u201d says Kumar Venkitrayananan, CAHNR\u2019s interim dean. \u201cThrough the generosity of his gift, we will continue to serve our communities, both with our students and the residents of Connecticut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minor \u201956 (CAHNR) passed away at the age of 90 in January, leaving a generous donation to the College, which will be used to fund the renovations necessary to open the center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means there\u2019s something there that he would be proud of,\u201d Minor\u2019s sister, Elizabeth Baker says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps instill just how much time and effort he put in toward UConn,\u201d Linda Hart, Minor\u2019s niece, says. \u201cWe\u2019re just so proud and happy that we\u2019ll be able to go there and know that this is something he made possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minor was a lifelong farmer. As a child, he began selling eggs in his neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always loved everything related to the farm,\u201d Baker says. \u201cFrom a very young age he was out driving a tractor.\u201d<\/p>\n

At UConn, Minor learned about new farming techniques that he brought home to his family farm. Minor\u2019s father, Leigh Minor, also attended UConn, graduating in 1916.<\/p>\n

One of Minor\u2019s favorite traditions was going on Sunday \u201cjoyrides\u201d with his family, often to the UConn Dairy Bar, where a plaque still bears his name honoring an earlier donation.<\/p>\n

Jim Murdock, Minor’s friend of more than 50 years, remembers his friend’s dry sense of humor and intelligence.<\/p>\n

“He was a character,” Murdock says. “He was a local fixture.”<\/p>\n

Minor would come visit Murdock at his antique boat shop every afternoon.<\/p>\n

“He’d sit there and tell stories,” Murdock says. “It was just fun listening to him. And if I had an engine electrical issue, he’d love to dive into that…He was a really, really smart guy.”<\/p>\n

Aside from farming, Minor\u2019s other lifelong passion was watching the stock market.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe spent every day so focused on the stock market, on his portfolio, knowing it was all someday going to UConn,\u201d Hart says.<\/p>\n

Self-declared \u201cUncle Scrooge,\u201d Minor lived modestly himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lived a good life,\u201d Hart says. \u201cHe lived it his way. He wasn\u2019t one to spend money on much of anything. But he was always happy with what he had, and it\u2019s amazing to see what it\u2019s making possible now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on\u00a0<\/em>Ensuring a Vibrant and Sustainable Agricultural Industry and Food Supply.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0<\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on social media<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Leigh Minor \u201956 (CAHNR) passed away at the age of 90 in January 2025, leaving a generous donation, which will be used to fund the renovations necessary to open the George Leigh Minor Plant and Soil Health Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":113733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,2224,1715,2304,2472,2303,2235,2225,2234,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-235310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-cahnr","category-community-impact","category-extension","category-gifts-donors","category-plant-science-landscape-architecture","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 06:25:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235310"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235403,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235310\/revisions\/235403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/113733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235310"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=235310"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=235310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}